MUFF-MAKING CATERPILLARS. 231 



eliding its head down to the entrance, tried to make 

 its way into the interior. But the rightful owner 

 did not choose to give up his premises so easily ; and 

 fixed his tent down so firmly upon the table where 

 we had placed it, that the intruder was forced to 

 abandon his attempt. The instant, however, that 

 the other unmoored his tent and began to move about, 

 the invader renewed his efforts to eject him, per- 

 severing in the struggle for several hours, but with- 

 out a chance of success. At one time we imagined 

 that he would have accomplished his felonious in- 

 tentions ; for he bound down the apex of the tent to 

 the table with cables of silk. But he attempted his 

 entrance at the wrong end. He ought to have tried 

 the aperture in the apex, by enlarging which a 

 little he would undoubtedly have made good his 

 entrance; and as the inhabitant could not have 

 turned upon him for want of room, the castle must 

 have been surrendered. This experiment, "however, 

 was not tried, and there was no hope for him at the 

 main entrance. 



Muff-shaped Tents. 

 The ingenuity of man has pressed into his service 

 not only the wool, the hair, and even the skins of 

 animals, but has most extensively searched the vege- 

 table kingdom for the materials of his clothing. In 

 all this, however, he is rivalled by the tiny inhabi- 

 tants of the insect world, as we have already seen j 

 and we are about now to give an additional instance 

 of the art of a species of caterpillars which select a 

 warmer material for their tents than even the cater- 

 pillar of the clothes-moth. It may have been remarked 

 by many who are not botanists, that the seed-catkins 

 of the willow become, as they ripen, covered with a 

 species of down or cotton, which, however, is too 

 short in the fibre to be advantageously employed in 



